UK Goverment demands YouTube remove videos

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Google has recently released its bi-annual Transparency Report which states that there have been 135 requests from the government and police to remove videos which may cause a threat to national security.

The 135 requests were made from the beginning of 2011 to the end of June, and is a 100 per cent increase on last year where no video take-down requests were filed.

This increase constitutes somewhat of an online video crackdown when violence is seen to be incited through YouTube.

However, whatever your views on freedom of speech and what should or shouldn't be allowed to be aired, this kind of censorship appears to be on the increase.

Fraudulent adverts have also been the target of the Office of Fair Trading, up from 156 to 333, whilst the Transparency Report also revealed that authorities were attempting to access more user identities than before. From 1,162 requests in the previous year, 1,273 were made in the following 6-month period in 2011.

Another figure to come out was that the British internet-using public, relative to population size, is most likely to have its data requested by the Government. Google states that it complied with Government requests 82 per cent of the time.

This is a huge moral maze in terms of freedom of speech and the extent to which certain views, if made public, have the ability to cause harm to others. There is much on the Internet that is unpleasant, and there often seems to be somewhat of a grey area of what is okay to be on public view and what isn't.

Do you think the UK Government is right to exercise censorship over videos it deems unacceptable or should there be no limit to what people can say online? Let us know in the comments...